NEW YORK -- Grant Tinker, chairman of the board of NBC, Thursday defended an NBC News report that suggested a connection between the head of CBS Records and allegations of payola in the music business.
The report had come under attack by CBS Chairman Thomas H. Wyman, who in a memorandum to the CBS Records division branded the NBC story as 'a second-class example of broadcast journalism.' He also defended CBS Records President Walter Yetnikoff.
Tinker stuck by Monday's report on NBC's 'Nightly News.'
'Tom Wyman's comments were unfortunate and his words ill-chosen,' Tinker said in a statement issued Thursday. 'NBC News does not do second-class work.'
The NBC story by Brian Ross said CBS Records 'did the most business with the independent promoters now under investigation.' The report quoted unnamed executives as saying that Yetnikoff 'had a lot to do with stopping an investigation' by the Recording Industry Association of America.
The report was the most recent of an NBC series that has focused on independent record promoters said to have ties with organized crime figures allegedly involved in payment from record companies in exchange for air play on radio stations.
NBC News reported that some promoters offer disc jockeys and program directors cash, cars, drugs and sex to play certain records or to help rig the weekly Top 40 charts by falsely reporting which songs they are playing.
Nearly all of the major labels stopped using independent promoters when federal authorities began investigating the charges.
Recent news reports have said federal grand juries in New York, Los Angeles and Newark, N.J., are investigating possible ties between organized crime and some independent record promoters.
Sen. Albert Gore, D-Tenn., said Wednesday the payola scandal is more extensive than in the past and will be investigated by a Senate subcommittee.
Gore said the probe was prompted by media disclosures, grand jury investigations and major record label suspensions of independent record promoters.
'The cumulative evidence is now overwhelming that this practice has gotten completely out of hand,' said Gore, whose wife Tipper was part of the effort last year to have record companies label rock music with objectionable lyrics.
